Auction based polling

ABSTRACT

A system and method for auction based polling is provided. Parameters related to a poll are received from a first user. Parameters related to a poll are received from a first user. A query is associated with the poll. A priority of the poll is determined based on the parameters. The poll is distributed to one or more second users according to the priority. Results to the poll are gathered. The results are reported to the first user.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application claims the priority benefit of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 60/932,712, filed May 31, 2007, titled, “Systemsand Methods for Auction Based Polling,” which is hereby incorporated byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates generally to social networking, and moreparticularly to systems and methods for auction based polling.

2. Description of Related Art

Conventionally, survey firms provide various conduits for companies tosurvey individuals in a public or private arena. With the popularity ofthe Internet and online venues, these survey firms often surveyindividuals via the Internet. A company or individual can pay the surveyfirms to survey these individuals, groups, and so forth using a varietyof media outlets available online.

Typically, the survey firm accrues results from polls taken on behalf ofthe company or the individual and provides the results to the company orthe individual. The results may be provided based on information inputby the company or the individual or according to any other criteria. Thesurvey firm may also provide demographic data about the users thatparticipated in the polls.

However, the company or the individual that requested the poll sometimesdesires faster and event nearly immediate results. In addition, alengthy, typically offline, registration process with the survey firm isoften involved for scheduling the polls. Further, the survey firm,rather than a poll requester, frequently specifies a price for the poll.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system and method for auction basedpolling. Parameters related to a poll are received from a first user. Aquery is associated with the poll. A priority of the poll is determinedbased on the parameters. The poll is distributed to one or more secondusers according to the priority. Results to the poll are gathered. Theresults are reported to the first user.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary environment forauction based polling;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an exemplary social networkengine;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary poll creation screen;

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary order confirmation screen;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flow chart of an exemplary process for reportingresults to a poll requester; and

FIG. 6 shows a flow chart showing an exemplary process for onlinepolling.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 illustrates a schematic diagram of an exemplary environment forauction based polling. One or more users 102, such as a user A 102A, auser B 102B, and up to a user N 102N, are in communication with apolling engine 106 via a network 104. The polling engine 106 may beassociated with a social network, one or more servers operating thesocial network, an advertising engine, or any other device orapplication capable of providing any type of services via the network,such as a web-based panel. The users 102 may access the servicesprovided by the polling engine 106 via the network 104. Optionally, oneor more of the users 102 may access the polling engine 106 directly.

The users 102 may access the polling engine 106 via a computing device,such as a laptop or desktop computer, a cellular telephone, a personaldigital assistant (PDA), a set top box, and so forth. The users 102 mayview data about social network members, enter data about the users 102,themselves, join social network groups, and so forth, via the pollingengine 106. The users 102 are typically members of a social networkingwebsite associated with the polling engine 106, for example, and thuscomprise the social network members, themselves. However, any of theusers 102 or other individuals not associated with the polling engine106 can conduct a poll or survey of the members of the social networkingwebsite by interfacing with an application programming interface (API)108 associated with the polling engine 106. For example, the users 102that are non-members of the social networking website may conduct pollsof the users 102 that are members of the social networking website andthe users 102 that are members of the social networking website may alsoconduct polls of the users 102 that are also members of the same socialnetworking website.

In other embodiments, the users can access the polling engine 106 via anadvertising engine (not shown) that serves advertisements to varioususers. Any type of website, network, and so forth may connect the users102 with the polling engine 106.

The users 102, such as the users A 102A through users N 102N, maygenerate polls utilizing the polling engine 106. According to someembodiments, a user accesses the polling engine 106 via the API 108,such as via a website hosted by the polling engine 106. The user entersdata into the API 108, such as desired questions, for conducting a poll,survey, or any other type of query of the users 102 associated with thepolling engine 106. The API 108 may be provided specifically for queriesor polls, or in alternative embodiments, for various other interactionswith the polling engine 106 as well.

The user accessing the API 108 can also enter auction data. For example,the user 102 (i.e. the poll requester) can specify a price per answerthe user 102 is willing to pay for answers to the survey, poll, orquery. The polling engine 106 can rank the poll from the poll requesteragainst other requested polls according to the price per answer andfulfill the polls according to the bids (i.e., the price per answer). Insome embodiments, a hierarchy may be assigned to the polls according tothe bids. Alternatively, some polls may not be fulfilled according tothe bids.

In some embodiments, the poll requester can, more specifically, bid theprice per answer for varying categories or groups of the users 102associated with the polling engine 106. For example, the price peranswer for computer science majors from MIT may be higher than the priceper answer for computer science majors from Harvard. Any type ofgrouping or categories for potential survey recipients is possible. Thepoll requester may specify the categories or the polling engine 106 maysuggest categories. The categories associated with the users 102 may beselected from a drop down menu or other menu offering predeterminedcategories of the users 102, or by any other means known in the art.

Various methods of providing poll details to the polling engine 106 maybe employed. The poll requester may enter a poll question and responsechoices, fir example via a web page. Alternatively, the polling engine106 may provide the API 108 for users to write programs and generatepolls, themselves, to automatically base decisions on poll resultsand/or generate new polls based on the results of one or more previouspolls.

The poll requester may also be able to enter data regarding what thepoll requester is willing to pay to conduct the poll via the API 108,thus creating an auction-like process. For example, the poll requestercan specify a bid per answer, a bid per user, and/or a bid perimpression that the poll requester is willing to pay. The bid per usermay include a price per grouping or type of user, such as users from aparticular geographical location or school. The bid per impression mayinclude a price per instant the poll appears to the users 102 or a groupof the users 102.

The bid may be based on profiles associated with the users 102. Asdiscussed herein, the users 102 that are members of the socialnetworking website may be polled by other members and/or by the users102 that are non-members. For example, the poll requester may bid adollar ($1.00) for answers by the users 102 who indicate in a profilethat the users' 102 favorite food is pizza. Bid types may be combinedaccording to some embodiments. For example, the poll requester may bidone dollar ($1.00) for each answer and another one dollar ($1.00) foreach impression related to the users 102 that attend StanfordUniversity. Any type of combination of bidding methods is within thescope of the present invention.

The polling engine 106 can rank all polls requested according to theprice per answer or impression and fulfill the polls according to thebids (i.e., the higher priced polls first). Priority may alternativelybe based on total cost, regardless of the number of requested users. Anytype of hierarchy or priority may be calculated utilizing any dataavailable to the polling engine 106.

According to some embodiments, the polling engine 106 can determine apredicted response rate to the poll. The predicted response rate may beutilized by the polling engine 106 to select the polls that win anauction. For example, a poll with a high predicted response rate may bemore desirable because the poll may generate more revenue than a pollthat is predicted to have a low response rate.

Referring now to FIG. 2, a block diagram of an exemplary polling engine,such as the polling engine 106 discussed in FIG. 1, is illustrated. Acommunications interface 202 is provided for receiving data from theusers 102, such as poll requesters or other users, and sending data tothe users 102. As discussed herein, the users 102 that comprise pollrequesters may further comprise members of the social networking websiteor non-members of the social networking website. The communicationsinterface 202 may be utilized for sending polls or other queries to theusers 102 and gathering responses from the users 102.

Typically, the users 102 may access a website associated with thepolling engine 106. For example, the polling engine 106 can host thesocial networking website which the users 102 can visit to interact withone another. The website can display various types of data about theusers 102 to one another, such as profile information, relationshipsbetween users, poll results, and other information. The users 102 maybelong to particular communities within the social networking website,such as communities categorized according to school attended, workplace,geographical location, etc. The communities may be utilized by thepolling engine 106 for grouping or categorizing the users 102. Asdiscussed herein, different bids may be provided by a poll requester forthe different communities comprised of the users 102.

A parameter module 204 is provided for receiving parameters associatedwith a requested poll via the API 108. The poll requester inputs variousdesired parameters, such as a price per answer, price per impression,price per type of user, questions for the poll, and so forth.

An auction module 206 is provided for evaluating the bids entered by thepoll requester. The auction module 206 can compare the variousparameters input to determine a hierarchy for fulfilling the polls fromeach of the poll requesters. The auction module 206 may fulfill polls inan order based on the bid per answer, the bid per impression, the bidper type of user, a combination of types of bids, and so forth.

The total amount of each bid may also be considered. For example, a userX may bid ten dollars ($10.00) per answer for a maximum of 100 answerswhile a user Y bids five dollars ($5.00) per answer for a maximum of 300answers. The auction module 204 may then rank user Y's bid as higherbecause the net bid is higher than user X's bid (i.e., $1500 net ratherthan $1000). Any type of ranking system may be employed by the auctionmodule 204. For example, the polls may be ranked according to price,difficulty of gathering responses or fulfilling the poll, originality ofpoll, and so forth. Further, as discussed herein, different bids fordifferent type of users responding to the poll may be entered.

A query module 208 conducts the polls by sending out queries to theusers 102 and gathering responses from the users 102. The query module208 may fulfill the polls in an order specified by the auction module206.

If desired, the query module 208 may suggest follow up or alternativepoll-related queries to the poll requester. For example, based onresponses from the users 102 to the polling queries, the polling module206 may suggest other poll categories or subject matter in which theusers 102 may be interested. The query module 208 may also suggestalternative language for posing poll related queries to the users 102based on information about the users 102, such as previous pollingresponses, user profile data, and so forth.

A reporting module 210 utilizes the polling responses gathered by thequery module 208 to generate a report for the poll requester. Thereporting module 210 may access profile data for the users 102 thatresponded to the poll to generate the report and/or any other type ofdata. The report may include demographics about the users 102 thatresponded, for example.

A profile database 212 that includes information about the users 102 mayneed to be accessed by the reporting module 210 and/or the query module208 according to some embodiments. For example, the profile database 212may be utilized in order to access and provide demographic informationabout the users 102, to help the query module 208 determine which of theusers 102 should receive a query, and so forth. Access to data about theusers 102 or to the users 102, directly, may be restricted by thepolling engine 106. Thus, the polling engine 106 may provide onlycertain demographic data to the poll requester about the users 102 thatrespond to polls.

The poll may be sent to specific users 102 or the poll may be posted ona social networking website associated with the polling engine 106. Ifthe poll is posted rather than sent, the users 102 that respond to thepoll may need to be compared with profile data to determine if the users102 meet the parameters specified by the poll requester, such as femaleMIT students. For example, the parameter module 204 may ignore responsesfrom the users 102 identified through profile information as graduatesof Harvard if the poll requested that only students from MIT respond toa posted poll.

Although FIG. 2 shows various modules associated with the polling engine106 (e.g., the communications interface 202, the parameter module 204,the auction module 206, the query module 208, the reporting module 210,and the profile database), fewer or more modules may be associated withthe polling engine 106 and still fall within the scope of variousembodiments. For example, a polling database (not shown) may be coupledto the polling engine 106 for storing data about poll responses receivedfrom the users 102.

Referring now to FIG. 3, an illustration of an exemplary poll creationscreen 300 is shown. As discussed herein, users can access the pollcreation screen 300 through any type of interface. The “upcomingelection” poll 302 appears on the screen once completed by the pollrequester. The poll requester can enter a query or any other text in aquery box 304. An answer style 306 is then selected indicating what typeof answers the users 102 answering the “upcoming election” poll 302 caninput. The poll requester may allow the users being polled to answer ina yes/no format, an agree/disagree format, a custom format, such as atext input, or any other desired format.

One or more answer choices 308 for the poll 302 may also be input by theuser, as shown on the poll creation screen 300. For example, as shown inFIG. 3, five multiple choice answers are provided from which the usersbeing polled may choose. One of those multiple choices allows for awrite-in selection. In other words, the users 102 being polled mayselect from a predetermined multiple choice answer or write-in ananswer.

The poll requester can further select one or more targets 310 fordesired respondents by indicating an age range and/or sex associatedwith the polled users. The age range may be predetermined and selectedfrom a drop down menu or the poll requester may specify a custom agerange, one or more specific ages, and so forth. According to someembodiments, the poll requester can identify keywords or profile typesthat the poll requester wishes to target with the poll being requested.

The poll requester can also select a location 312 to associate with thepoll 302. For example, the poll related to the “upcoming election” inthe screen shown in FIG. 3 is associated with all locations. However, ifthe poll related to a local upcoming election, a local city may beselected. Any location 312 related to any poll topic may be selected orotherwise provided by the requester.

A number of desired responses 314 may be selected or input by the pollrequester. The number of responses 314 can identify the maximum numberof the responses needed. A minimum number of responses or a range ofacceptable responses may also be selected according to some embodiments.The poll requester may identify a number of responses required for agroup of polls and allocate an ideal number of responses for each pollwithin the group of polls. Groups of polls may be distinct from oneanother or related. For example, the users 102 that select “HillaryClinton” in the “upcoming election” poll 302 may also be queriedregarding campaign funding in a related poll, while favorite cerealtypes may be queried in a different poll. Any group of polls may berequested related to any common area or range of subject matter.

A duration of the poll may also be selected according to someembodiments. The duration may be specified by the polling engine 106 ormay be requested by the poll requester and may be in terms of real time,number of responses, or a combination. For example, the polling engine106 may indicate that it is likely to take four hours to complete a pollfor which a maximum of 400 answers is desired by the poll requester. Inanother example, the poll requester may request completion of the pollwithin 3 hours, or any other increment of time. The polling engine 106may estimate the amount of time it takes to gather the answers based onprevious polls, for example. The duration of the poll may be correlatedwith bid prices, so that polls with higher bids receive faster results.Any method for estimating the amount of time needed to gather answers toa poll is within the scope of various embodiments.

As discussed herein, a bid price 316 for each of the responses 314, abid per user, and/or a bid per impression, may also be selected or bidby the poll requester. The price for each response, each of the users102, and/or each impression may be multiplied by the number of responsesdesired for a total bid price. As discussed herein, any of these numbersmay then be utilized by the polling engine 106 to determine which pollsrequested are fulfilled. The requested polls may be fulfilled in ahierarchical order according to the bid price, such as in an auctionusing either a per user price or the total price. According to someembodiments, only the poll with the highest bid price is fulfilledwithin a certain period of time, such as every hour or every day. Pollswith lower bids may thus take longer to fulfill than the polls withhigher bids. However, other criteria, such as subject matter,affiliation with the network, and so forth may also be utilized todecide when to fulfill one or more polls in addition to the auction ofthe bids per answer, per user 102, per impression, etc. For example, anadvertiser that often advertises with a particular website may have theadvertiser's polls prioritized based on affiliation with the particularwebsite and/or a high price bid per impression, or a price for eachimpression to targeted users.

According to some embodiments, the poll may be prioritized based on acombination of the level of a bid and the expected time for performanceof the poll. Thus, a poll that the polling engine 106 expects willreceive the maximum number of responses easily may be ranked higher dueto the ability to easily fulfill the poll while a poll in which themaximum number of responses will be difficult or more time consuming toobtain may be ranked lower due to the difficulty of fulfilling the poll.As discussed herein, any criteria may be utilized to rank or prioritizevarious polls.

After the poll requester completes the order and bid for the poll, thepoll requester can select a “finish and pay” button, or any othermechanism for submitting the order. Although the poll creation screen300 illustrates various options for providing a poll query, answers tothe poll query, target audience, location, and bids, less or moreinformation may be provided via the poll creation screen 300 and stillfall within the scope of various embodiments.

FIG. 4 illustrates an exemplary order confirmation screen 400. The orderconfirmation screen 400 allows the poll requester to preview the poll302 input on the poll creation screen, such as the poll creation screen300 shown in FIG. 3. The order confirmation screen 400 also provides adelivery and billing summary 402 to the poll requester. Any type ofsummary may be provided to the poll requester. Although the summary inFIG. 4 indicates delivery and billing information, any type of summary,such as a summary of demographic information, target information,location information, and so forth may be summarized for the pollrequester.

According to some embodiments, a bid for the poll may be declined. Forexample, a poll associated with a higher bidder may be chosen by thepolling engine 106 over a lower bidder for the same or similar poll. Ascreen may be displayed that indicates to the poll requester that thepoll request cannot be fulfilled, the poll request is declined, or anyother desired message. Any type of process, display, etc. for acceptingor declining poll order requests is within the scope of variousembodiments.

If the poll requester wishes edit the details of the poll, the pollrequester may return to the poll creation screen 300 from the orderconfirmation screen 400 to edit the details of the poll 302. Any othermechanism for editing the poll, such as a pop up window, mayalternatively be provided.

Payment information 404 may also be provided via the order confirmationscreen 400. Although the order confirmation screen 400 in FIG. 4indicates that the poll will “go live immediately” when the “placeorder” button is selected, the poll 302 may be posted or fulfilled inany manner or according to any timeline according to variousembodiments.

As discussed herein, the poll requester may indicate groups of users 102to which the poll 302 should be sent or targeted. Although FIG. 3indicates that the users 102 may be selected for targeting according toage and sex, any other parameters may be selected for targeting polls.For example, profile characteristics of the users 102 or participationin other types of polls may be utilized to target a current poll.

FIG. 5 shows a flow chart of an exemplary process for conducting a polland reporting results to a poll requester. At step 502, a pollingquestion and at least two possible answers to the polling question arereceived, such as the poll 302 discussed in FIG. 3. Any type of pollingquestion may be provided, selected from a menu, or selected based on asuggestion from the polling engine 106.

At step 504, an indication of a desired population to provide answers tothe poll is received, such as the targets 310 discussed in FIG. 3. Thetargets 310 may include school type, age, sex, network, and so forth.

At step 506, the polling engine 106 receives a bid amount that the pollrequester is willing to pay. The poll requester may be willing to payper user, per impression, and so forth, as discussed herein.

At step 508, the polling engine 106 specifies the bill total for thepoll requester based upon the bid amount. As discussed herein, the bidmay vary for different bid types. The poll requester may specifydifferent bids for different user types answering the same poll. Thepolling engine 106 may fulfill and/or prioritize the poll based on thevarious bid types. For example, different types of impressions, users,and so forth may be bid differently by the poll requester. As discussedherein, MIT students that provide answers may be paid for at a higherrate than Harvard students. Similarly, the price per answer when thepoll is accessed from a central social networking page associated with asocial networking website may be higher than when the poll is accessedvia an advertisement associated with the social networking website. Anytype of bids based on any type of data, grouping, and so forth may beentered by the poll requester or provided as a selection by the pollingengine 106.

At step 510, the billing information is received. At step 512, the pollis prioritized and fulfilled. The results of the poll are then reportedin real-time to the poll requester, at step 514. According to someembodiments, the results of the poll may be reported to other users 102,such as users that recently answered the poll question, users visiting ascreen on which the poll question is displayed for answer, and so forth.The poll requester and/or the polling engine 106 can determine whichusers 102 can access the poll results, according to some embodiments.Although step 514 indicates that the poll results are reported in realtime, the poll results may be reported to the poll requester or anyother users 102 at any point in time, according to other embodiments.

FIG. 6 shows a flow chart showing an alternative exemplary process foronline polling. At step 602, parameters related to a poll are receivedfrom a first user. The parameters may comprise subject matter, atimeframe in which the poll results are needed, the number of pollanswers desired, a price per answer the poll requester is willing topay, such as monetary bids, a points system for bidding, a bid per user,a bid per impression, and so forth.

Also discussed herein, the first user may comprise a member of thesocial network or any other user. The first user may request the pollvia the poll creation screen, as shown in FIG. 3. The poll creationscreen may be accessed via any interface, as discussed herein.

At step 604, a query is associated with the poll. The poll requester mayassociate one or more queries with the poll, as shown in FIG. 3. In someembodiments, the polling engine may automatically generate one or morequeries according to subject matter provided by the poll requester.Alternatively, the poll requester can select one or more queries from adrop down menu and the polling engine can incorporate the subject matterinto the query selected. For example, the poll requester can enter musicartists for answer choices and a query category labeled favorite musicartists from a drop down menu. The polling engine can then generate aquery that asks users “which of the below music artists is your favoritenew artist?” Any type of query may be generated based on informationprovided by the poll requester.

At step 606, a priority of the poll is determined based on theparameters. A poll may be fulfilled before another poll or conductedinstead of another poll based on the parameters. For example, thepolling engine may gather and return results to the requester with thehighest bid per answer before other poll results are returned to otherrequesters.

The priority of a poll may change depending upon the particular poll andthe parameters. For example, based on parameters including responserates to the particular poll, the priority of the particular poll maychange as it is conducted by the polling engine. Priority may also becalculated on a per user basis, as discussed herein, such as when thepolling engine determines that certain users are more likely to respondto some polls.

At step 608, the poll is then sent to one or more second users, such asthe users associated with a social networking website, according to thepriority. The first user may comprise the poll requester, as discussedherein, that belongs to a network in common with the one or more secondusers or the first user may not be associated with the network. In otherwords, any user can request a poll, whether or not the user isassociated with the one or more second users via a common network, acommon website, and so forth.

An incentive may be provided to the users for answering the one or morequeries associated with the poll. For example, the users may receivepoints, coupons, and so forth for answering the queries associated withthe poll. The queries associated with the poll may be nested accordingto some embodiments. In other words, if the user selects choice #3, theuser may be asked another query related to the choice #3. For example,in FIG. 2, if the user selects “Hillary Clinton”, the user may bepresented with a follow-up question about party affiliation. Any type ofnested queries may be presented.

The poll may be sent to individual users; such as via email or posted ordisplayed to profile pages associated with each of the individual users,and/or the one or more queries may be displayed to a common areaassociated with a website. When the queries are displayed in a commonarea, the polling engine may compare the users that answer the poll witha profile associated with each of the users when a specific type of useris desired. For example, if the poll indicates that only blue-eyed usersshould answer, the polling engine may compare the users that answer thepoll with their profiles to ensure that they have blue eyes anddisregard answers from other users. In other embodiments, the pollingengine may indicate to the users a group that is desired to answer thepoll and may either prevent other users from answering the poll at allor not register the users' answers.

According to other embodiments, the users to which the poll isdistributed may be balanced based on an automated sample balancing, sothat the users are representative of a population of users beingsampled.

At step 610, results to the poll may then be gathered. As discussedherein, the results may be gathered over any period of time. The resultsmay be gathered according to a “winner” of the auction or according toany other criteria, as discussed herein.

At step 612, the results are then reported to the first user, such asthe poll requester. The results may be categorized according todemographics, target audience, answer types, and so forth. Any data maybe provided with the raw answers. According to some embodiments, theanswers may be utilized to automatically generate other polls orqueries.

The results may be reported to the poll requester in real-time oraccording to any other method. The raw answers may be reported inreal-time while analytical data associated with the raw answers arereported at a later time. Any type of results may be reported to thepoll requester in real time.

According to some embodiments, a user that answers the query associatedwith the poll can access the results of the poll gathered up to the timethe user answers or a subset of the results to the poll. As discussedherein, polls may be automatically generated based on answers toprevious polls. In some embodiments, the poll requester can schedulepolls to run automatically at various intervals and to update the pollsbased on previous poll results, if desired. As also discussed herein,the priority of a poll may change as the poll runs its course. Thepolling engine can provide previous poll results to the poll requesterbased on similarity of the poll requested to other polls previouslyconducted, according to some embodiments. Polls can be delivered in anymanner, as discussed herein, such as posted to a page, delivered withadvertisements, accompanying a news story, and so forth.

The above-described components and functions can be comprised ofinstructions that are stored on a computer-readable storage medium. Theinstructions can be retrieved and executed by a processor. Some examplesof instructions are software, program code, and firmware. Some examplesof storage medium are memory devices, tape, disks, integrated circuits,and servers. The instructions are operational when executed by theprocessor to direct the processor to operate in accord with theinvention. Those skilled in the art are familiar with instructions,processor(s), and storage medium.

While various embodiments have been described above, it should beunderstood that they have been presented by way of example only, and notlimitation. For example, any of the elements associated with pollingengine 106 may employ any of the desired functionality set forthhereinabove. Thus, the breadth and scope of a preferred embodimentshould not be limited by any of the above-described exemplaryembodiments.

1. A method comprising: receiving bidding information for a plurality ofpolls by a server system, each poll comprising a query and a set ofanswers; receiving a request for a poll from a viewing user; determiningan expected response rate of the viewing user for one or more of theplurality of polls; determining, by the server system, an expectedperformance value for the one or more polls based on the biddinginformation and the determined expected response rate for the one ormore polls; selecting, by the server system, a poll from the one or morepolls based on the determined expected performance value for the one ormore polls; and providing the selected poll from the server system fordisplay to the viewing user.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein thebidding information includes a bid per answer.
 3. The method of claim 1,wherein the bidding information includes a bid per group of users. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the bidding information includes a bidper impression associated with the poll.
 5. The method of claim 1,further comprising gathering results of the selected poll and generatingnew queries based on the results.
 6. The method of claim 1, whereinproviding the selected poll to the viewing user comprises displaying thequery of the selected poll on a page associated with the viewing user.7. The method of claim 1, further comprising selecting a second userbased on automated sample balancing; and providing the selected poll fordisplay to the second user.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein theexpected performance value for a respective poll is further based on adesired number of responses for the respective poll.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the expected performance value for a respective poll isfurther based on an expected time for performance of the respectivepoll.
 10. A system comprising: one or more processors; memory storingone or more programs for execution by the one or more processors, theone or more programs comprising: a communications interface configuredto receive bidding information for a plurality of polls sent to thesystem, each poll comprising a query and a set of answers, and toreceive a request for a poll from a viewing user; and an auction modulein communication with the communications interface, the auction moduleconfigured to determine an expected response rate of the viewing userfor one or more of the plurality of polls, to determine an expectedperformance value for the one or more polls based on the biddinginformation and the determined expected response rate for the one ormore polls, and to select a poll from the one or more polls based on thedetermined expected performance value for the one or more polls; and aquery module in communication with the auction module, the query moduleconfigured to provide the selected poll from the system for display tothe viewing user.
 11. The system of claim 10, wherein the biddinginformation includes a bid per answer.
 12. The system of claim 10,wherein the the bidding information includes a bid per group of users.13. The system of claim 10, wherein the viewing user is a member of asocial networking system.
 14. A non-transitory computer readable storagemedium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executableby a processor for performing a method comprising: receiving biddinginformation for a plurality of polls by a server system, each pollcomprising a query and a set of answers; receiving a request for a pollfrom a viewing user; determining an expected response rate of theviewing user for one or more of the plurality of polls; determining, bythe server system, an expected performance value for the one or morepolls based on the bidding information and the determined expectedresponse rate for the one or more polls; selecting, by the serversystem, a poll from the one or more polls based on the determinedexpected performance value for the one or more polls; and providing theselected poll from the server system for display to the viewing user.15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein thebidding information includes a bid per answer.
 16. The computer readablestorage medium of claim 15, wherein the viewing user is a member of asocial networking system.
 17. The computer readable storage medium ofclaim 14, wherein the bidding information includes a bid per group ofusers.